The Closest Thing to a Vacation (2005-08-29 to 2005-09-04)

As part of his trip to Cambodia, Kuala Lumpur and China, Stallman reacts to the copyright statements of the World Trade Organization.

The FOSSAP II meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, was organized by APDIP,
a part of UNDP that covers the Asia/Pacific region. Many free
software activists were invited, as well as representatives of various
Asian governments.

One of the nice aspects of meeting in Siem Reap was that we could
visit the Angkor temples and see Cambodian court dancing. However, I
couldn't join the meeting's arranged tour because that was the day
after the event, the day when I was leaving for Hong Kong. So I
arranged to go to Siem Reap two days early. This gave me a chance to
see more, including the temple of Banteay Srei, a ways to the north of
Angkor, which has the most beautiful carvings of all. I put the
photos in stallman.org/photos/cambodia.

Cambodian court dancing was revived largely by Cambodian exiles
abroad, after most of the dancers were killed by the Khmer Rouge in
the 1970s. I had seen this dancing just twice before, in Boston, back
when First Night was aimed at adults as much as children. (It no
longer has performances like this, so I no longer bother with it.) I
was amazed by the beauty of the performance by the Angkor Dancers, and
when it was done, I wanted to shout "Angkor, Angkor". Ever since then
I have wished for a chance to see Cambodian dance again; I even tried
to find the group so I could ask when and where they would perform
again, but I never succeed. For FOSSAP II, the Cambodian government
sponsors arranged performances for the meeting.

We also took a boat out onto the large lake, Tonle Sap, which is a
short way south of Siem Reap. The edge of the lake slopes very
gradually, so there is a large coastal area where the water advances
and retreats seasonally. The people in that area live in boats. Our
tourist boat went out to the lake alongside a path that kept getting
narrower and lower until it was underwater--but people stood and
walked on it nonetheless. It looked as if they were walking on water.
When we got to the lake, it was somewhat of an anticlimax--except for
the thunder in the distance from an approaching storm. Fortunately
the storm did not reach us until we had arrived back in port.

Several people from Nepal were at the meeting. When I met them, I
mentioned what I had heard about the arrests and censorship there.
They told me that these reports were exaggerated, and minimized
everything. The reports come on good authority--newspapers such as
the Guardian, and direct from refugees. These people, who must have
traveled with the king's permission, were telling me the story that
the king wants the world to believe.

Also at the meeting was the second Chinese free software activist I've
encountered, Min Gong from the Co-Create Software League. I arranged
to meet him in Beijing later on.

One of the presentations I saw was about the Sahana project, which
used and developed free software to organize aid to tsunami victims in
Sri Lanka. They hope to adapt it to aid for other disasters in the
future. Seeing this project inspired the new FSF award for using free
software to serve other social purposes.

The climax of the event, for me, occurred when the representative of
the government of a rather undemocratic Asian country defended the
WTO. (The WTO requires copyright rules that forbid people from
sharing.) He explained, condescendingly and at excessive length, that
people who decide to play soccer must abide by its rules, arbitrary
though they may be; then he compared the WTO's rules to the rules of
soccer. He said, "These are the rules that the wealthy countries have
set for access to their markets. We have to accept them."

I responded, "The WTO's rules were designed to be unjust. In every
country, they benefit the wealthy and hurt everyone else. They
give us a world of sweatshops. No country should accept these rules."
Half the people in the room then applauded. The other half probably
support trickle-down economics.